Rikalo's Blood Sport
by Familiar47
Summary: My entries for the third season of Blood Sport on DeviantArt. My OC Rikalo 'Rik' enters so he can reunite with his family only to find his wife has entered also. But he has bigger worries, like the monsters and opponents he has to face down!
1. Chapter 1

The Blood Sport Prologue

I don't own Invader Zim

Xxx

Part One

"_Tell us where they are." Another blow, across his face. "Where did you hide them?"_

_They want to find them still, do they? Well that's just tough then. He'd had this before whenever they actually manage to catch him and hold onto him long enough to do this. And the last time around they had more than one guy holding his arms._

"_Tell us where you hid them," The officer demanded. "We know she's your wife and we know she was scheduled for termination millennia ago. You can't hide her, that smeet you stole or the one you spawned forever." He turned away, taking off his gloves and cracking his knuckles. "If we have to find them without your cooperation we'll make their deaths a_ lot _slower than they have to be."_

_Rik looked up, blood dripping down his chin. He flexed the fingers of his right hand a bit, getting ready. He knew he had to be patient before he acted or-_

"_Can't say I blame you though Rikalo," The officer chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I'd do anything to keep an attractive little bitch like that to myself-"_

_Rik slammed is head back into his captor's face and tore a gun from the soldier's belt. The officer and the Irken guarding the door were so caught off guard that as they reached for their own weapons Rik put two shots into the guard and the three more into the Irken who had been holding him. As the officer brought his gun up Rik slapped it back down and then punched him across the face._

_The officer fell like a heap, but he was still conscious-and alive. Rik looked around the dump of a room he had been staying in when they had attacked and walked over to the simple table shoved into one corner. He tore the metal leg off of it and walked over to the officer. Seeing the weapon in Rik's hand, he panicked and tried to scramble to his feet..._

_And for his troubles he received the end of the metal table leg through his left eye and into his brain. He went limp like a puppet with its strings cut. Rik stood up, wiping blood from his jaw and walked over to a cracked mirror that hang on one wall. He had bruises and cuts, the usual taken from an interrogation such as what had just occurred._

_But he had a smile on his face and was already grabbing his coat and pulling it on. He pulled its hood up over his head and turned away from the mirror. He checked the three soldiers and found they each had several grenades on them. Activating them, he stepped out of the room and down to the front lobby._

_As he walked out into the rain, protected by his hood and coat the grenades detonated on the second floor. Sirens wailed and before anybody knew it the small colony was consumed by chaos. In the midst of panicking Irkens Rikalo 'Rik' walked as though he owned the planet towards the space port._

_Under his breath he repeated the same sentence._

"_Anythin' for you De, anythin' for you and the kids."_

Rikalo opened his eyes, and immediately shut them with a curse as he got a full flash of sun light. He clapped one hand over his eyes and groaned, rolling onto his side. "Oh right..._that's_ where I was sleeping."

_That_ turned out to be on top of a small shack that was in the middle of a wasteland that stretched for dozens of miles in every direction. It was the Zedia IV No-Man's-Land, the worst of the worst on the ball of sand and where nobody wanted to live; this is unless they wanted to never be found by some second rate bounty hunter looking to score a small fortune on their first mission.

Rik opened one eye and spread his fingers enough that he could see the flask of his special drink. It was open but had not tipped over yet. He grabbed it and sighed, bringing it to his lips. He took several gulps and sat up. After he was done he shut the flask and hang it back on his belt as he got to his feet.

Rik had spent the past year out here, only heading to the one settlement on the whole planet to find provisions and news on what was happening out in the galaxy. He had tried staying in better places ever since he left his family, only for Irken Grab Teams to corner him at every turn-though he managed to slip out at the last second each time. Every time it was the same thing: Where is De Rien, where are her smeets?

After a few dozen near misses, Rik finally took some advice from his associate Lok and came out here to hide. Lok even gave him a ride onto the planet so he wouldn't be registered at the space port on a public transport. In the past year Rik had not heard from the Empire sponsored mercenary-most likely he was out on another adventure assigned by the Tallest.

Stretching, Rik stared out over the wastelands and wiped sweat from his brow with one forearm. "I gotta stop fallin 'asleep up here."

He leaped back down to the ground and walked inside. The shack had one room with a bed and a place for his clothes. Rik relied on the Ration Packs he bought in town-and the meals that he would purchase from time to time when he visited to restock. It was a drastic plummet from the life he had lived with De Rien: a two story house with plenty of food and comfy furniture, Ouri and Fren always there to greet him when he got home and most of all..._ no alcohol what so ever_.

Setting his flask down, Rik walked over to his desk and checked the portable communicator that he had managed to construct from various shopping trips to the settlement. Tapping it, he set it to the frequency provide to him by a hacker: Paneece, a good friend of his. It would allow him to monitor the frequency used by Irken Grab Teams to report successful captures. And with the modifications Paneece had made to the communicator anybody who tried to trace him would wind up calling Schloogar's on Foodcourtia.

There were seven or eight captures every day, none of them De Rien.

"_...Irken Loral, apprehended on Irk, charged with theft of Imperial Vehicle...Irken Selan, apprehended on Devastis, charged with murder of Irken soldiers..."_

The names went on and on as Rik leaned back on his chair and grabbed his flask. He took another mouthful of the awful liquid down his throat. He stared at the ceiling, counting how many names came through.

Four names...nine names...wow the Grab Teams were on a roll today.

But then came the tenth name...

"_Irken Rikalo 'Rik', apprehended on Zedia IV, charged with murder of irken soldiers..."_

Rik kicked the edge of his desk and rolled backwards over his tipped over chair. He came up on his feet and looked around for his gun belt. There! On the coat rack! He grabbed one of them by the handle and tore it out of its holster. He heard it hum as it charged up and then aimed it at the door, then at the small window at the back, then at the hole in the roof.

"_Abduction of a smeet from Defective Research Smeetery 4, breaking and entering, piracy, smuggling..."_

He felt adrenaline pounding through him, and he was breathing heavily a bit from the sudden shock of the announcement. He knew that he had to get out quickly. Sometimes they got it wrong, grabbed the wrong Irken and thought he was somebody else...other times they messed with a soon to be captured crook, saying they know where they are...

"_Illegal mating and creation of a smeet, aiding and abetting in escape from Imperial pursuit, consumption of illegal materials, desertion..."_

He packed his personal effects and then pulled his coat on, doing the trench coat up and securing his pistols to the belt under it. He grabbed his supply pack and then kicked the front door open. He dove out of the cabin and rushed across the sands towards what appeared to be a large rock at first until he tore a sand covered tarp off of it, revealing a small one man hover craft with a canopy over the cockpit, perfect for travelling the desert.

He opened the canopy and reached up to climb in-

"**Really? You're trying to run? What a moron."**

Rik spun, jamming the tip of his gun into the face of a now somewhat nervous drone. **"Er...was the moron jab too much?"**

"Who the florp are you?" Rik asked slowly. "Make it quick, I don't like trespassers."

"**Gee, direct as they say, alrighty then,"** The drone stiffened and then changed its personality entirely. It seemed eager and happy as it played a pre-recorded message.

**CONGRATULATIONS! You are one of just a few select people who have been given the honor to participate in a little 'game'. Do you want the riches, the status, the FAME of being a WINNER? Then come and join us! Become a hero or a villian, open yourself up to being watched by billions of people. Become a celebrity. All you have to do is hit ACCEPT once you are ready. No need for a ship, no need to travel, no worries at all. Go ahead. Push the button. Happy travels.**

The recording ended. **"So...what'll it be then?"**

Rik's eyes widened a bit.

"**Hello? Rikalo? Hellooooooo-"**

CLANK! Rik slammed it into the side of his vehicle. "Shaddup yah floatin' soup can, I'm thinkin'!" He rubbed his chin. "What can I win from this?"

"**Ah...you want to know if you can get that bounty called off of you. It was just a little...motivation to get you to accept the invitation."** The drone sounded sly. **"Well rest assured that you'll pretty much be able to win anything you want from this!"**

"...alright then," Rik nodded. "Show me the button."

A panel slid up on the drone's front, showing a big red button. b**"Go right ahead..."**/b It chuckled, slowly evolving into a maniacal laugh. **"Hehehe...hahahaha...MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"**

"Will you shaddup already? I'm pressin' the damn button!" Rik slammed his palm down on the button.

Xxx

He felt as his body was slowly broken down and then shot across the galaxy beyond the speed of light. He was on Zedia one moment...and on a planet hundreds of light years away the next. He reappeared in darkness, stumbling a bit. He rubbed his eyes. "...maybe I should'a thought that out a bit."

But he wasn't thinking about it, he only thought of one thing...more specifically three things: De Rien, Ouri and Fren. His wife and two sons...with him again...forever? All he had to do was win! He would be with them again and the Empire wouldn't ever tear them apart!

But of course there was one problem...

"The hell am I doin' in a _damn cave for?_" Rik shouted.

_Damn cave for..._

_Damn cave for..._

_Damn cave for..._

He listened to his echo as it faded in the massive cavern he had been teleported into. He was on the edge of an underground river that was running past him into a tunnel. He examined the water and found that it was at least knee deep.

"Well this is a damn good start to Blood Sport," He muttered bitterly, using his PAK to scan the water-and surprisingly found it to be clean, perfect for drinking even by Irken standards. Another interesting feature to the cavern were several stones along the walls and floor that produced a soft glow. He picked one up and tested its weight. "Hm...guess I might as well take a souvenir." He placed it in a small empty bag he slipped into a small pocket of his trench coat before he stepped down into the river. "Nowhere to go but forward I guess-"

A rapid squeaking sound cut him off. He slowly turned, looking up at the darker ceiling of the cavern far above. A tentacle slid out of his PAK and aimed up at the source of the noise, and turned on...

Illuminating a dozen large figures hanging from the stalactites. Slowly each of them unfurled large leathery wings and let out a synchronized screech as they released their respective stalactite and then dived across the cavern towards Rik, flapping their powerful limbs.

Sighing, Rik slid a cigarette in between his lips. "I just can't catch a damn break today." He brought a lighter up and cupped it with the other hand, lighting the cigarette and then flicking the lighter shut. The bat creatures were closing in as he pocketed the lighter and then blew out a puff. "...aw well, no use bitchin' about it." He pulled out both of his pistols. "Time to go huntin'!"

Xxx

End of Part One


	2. Chapter 2

The Blood Sport Prologue

I don't own Invader Zim

Xxx

Part Two

Rikalo leaped out of the river using his PAK legs, managing to avoid the first three bats as they dove for him, their jaws snapping at empty air. He landed as he retracted the appendages and rolled several times. He stopped on his back and snapped one pistol up, firing two times into the nearest bat as it turned in mid air towards him. It collapsed into the river, twitching as its blood mixed with the water, which carried them both away.

Rik heard another shriek and glanced up, seeing a second bat coming down on top of him. Rolling sideways like a log, he dodged in time and the bat hit the floor with a 'crunch!' The Irken holstered his pistols and grabbed the folded rifle on his back. He brought it up and flicked the switch on the side.

With a iwhir/i the rifle extended into its full size, and he saw both of the energy cells in it light up. He raised the rifle, going into a crouched position as two more bats came at him, flying low over the surface of the cave. One shot to each of their heads vaporized most of their bodies and caused several of the eight remaining bats to back off and reconsider their strategy.

"That's it...come to Rikky," Rik drawled, holding his rifle at his side with one hand almost casually and moving to his right as he looked at the circling bats. He kept on changing direction at will, keeping most or all of them in sight at all times.

Finally one dove down and tried to use the stalagmites to cover it as it zig zagged between them, coming at Rik from the side. But he quickly brought his rifle up and fired two times in its direction, hitting it with the first shot and blowing a stalagmite apart with the second. As he predicted, two more of the creatures came at him from the opposite direction! Instead of turning he unfolded all four of his PAK legs and aimed them backwards, firing their built in lasers all at once...he felt something gooey and with chunks in it splatter on the back of his head. Grimacing, he used his left hand to wipe the remnants of the two bats away and then checked on the other five...but they were gone now!

"...hoo boy, this is where they get harder," He mumbled, holding the rifle properly and looking around cautiously. He took soft, cautious steps. After several seconds he fiddled with the rifle. He pushed the stock it and then pulled back a tab on the barrel, which shortened and widened. Next he slid a panel open and tapped a single button, one of three that determined the mode of firing for the weapon.

Just as he finished one bat landed behind him and shrieked as it spread its wings out, ready to pounce. But Rik turned and simply blasted it with a single shot from the Shotgun-Model of the rifle. The single powerful blast tore the bat to pieces and reduced it to pulp and bone. He glanced at a meter on the side of the weapon that quickly filled with green, indicating it was ready to fire again. The shotgun used too much energy, he couldn't afford to waste so much on a couple bats, and thus went about changing it again.

He elongated the barrel, shortened the body, extended the stock, and then applied the proper modification. As the next bat came down he sprayed it with short, quick bursts. As it tried to dodge it accidently collided with one of its companions. Both of them were given a dozen or so small holes for their troubles.

"Two left," Rik mumbled to himself just before he heard a light 'clack' on the floor behind him. Spinning, he slammed the butt of his rifle into the open jaw of the eleventh bat, dislocating the lower jaw and knocking the beast off balance. As it tried to rise Rik stomped on its head once, making it go limp.

The cave was silent after that. No matter how long Rik waited, the final bat would not appear. Perhaps it had realized that it could not take Rik on alone if the rest of its group couldn't do it together? Relaxing, Rik reduced his rifle to its passive form, hang it on his back and then reached for a cigarette to replace the one he had dropped when dodging the bats. He lit it and exhaled, pocketing the lighter before he reached down...

And then got out the hidden switch blade, flicked it open, and swung it back handed as he twisted clockwise. It cut right across the neck of the last bat, which gurgled and collapsed, managing to process that its plan to sneak up on him while he was relaxed had not worked.

THUNK!

b"Uh...ow?"/b A drone, not unlike the one that had teleported Rik got out from under the collapsed bat, deactivating its cloaking device. b"Good job for your first five minutes in the game! Taking on a whole pack of Bats is a feat."/b

"Aw hell, another one of you soup cans?" Rik blew a puff of smoke into its lens. "What was there, a sale or somethin'?"

b"My model is the standard model purchased and utilized by Blood Sport,"/b The drone crossed its arms, sounding offended.

"Great, thanks, can you go now?" Rik asked quickly.

b"I'm just supposed to tell you that you will be monitored at all times, though only key moments such as fights will be broadcasted,"/b The drone sighed.

"Good to know, now please...?" Rik waved one hand away in the direction of the tunnel.

b"Fine!"/b The drone cloaked, supposedly flying off.

"'Bout damn time," Rik mumbled, returning to the river and heading down the very same tunnel he had pointed out earlier.

Xxx

After perhaps a whole hour of wandering, Rikalo found a tunnel that sloped upwards towards a light. Once he followed it he stumbled out of the darkness of the cavern and into broad day light of a large forest!...

"Wait, hold the phone," Rik glanced around. He was not in a forest...he was in a large cave that had a hole in the roof that allowed the sun to illuminate the interior. There was a miniature swamp within the cave, with vegetation crawling all over the walls and water and mud on the ground. The cavern and swamp areas seemed to combine here...but he was sadly still in the cave area.

He was on the top of a shallow slope that kept him just feet above the water. Snapping a vine off of the wall he tied it around a rock, securing it and then lowered the rock in...the vine was perhaps three feet long and he ended up using it's whole length up before it was snatched from his hand by something. Backing up, he swallowed and then inhaled deeply, sitting down so he wouldn't panic.

...

Definitely a time to drink.

"Here's to Blood Sport," He raised his flask, opened it and then took a gulp from the it.

One might question the wisdom in drinking at such a critical time, but Rikalo honestly needed it. He unzipped his coat and slid it off, folding it next to him on the moss covered ground. After a few gulps he put the flask away and sighed in content. "Not too different from my average day at all, ain't it?"

Grabbing his coat and holding it over one shoulder he started down the slope...and soon found that the water was deeper in some areas than in other parts. His right foot sank in to halfway to the knee in thick mud. He looked down and sighed. "Yep, another day in the office Rikalo."

Putting his coat back on, he started his trek through the gunk and swamp water, sticking to patches of land or shallow water. He also kept an eye out for any carnivorous plants or creatures-which he had dealt with quite a few times. This particular area made him uncomfortable for one chief reason: Rik ihated/i not being able to see what was in the water; he had a similar problem with sand, so much that he never set foot in a sand box earlier in life. This was only reinforced during a mission years ago when a giant sand worm had almost devoured him.

It only got worse when he entered a tunnel that caused him to remember his varying jungle based missions. Why the hell was the swamp pouring down into these caves?

"It's alright Rikky, it's just a swamp...you've been in them before..." He said to himself. "You faced worse than a few water snakes-" GAH! Wrong words, now he only remembered the sand worm and imagined it in water! "Ugh...shuttin' up now."

He came out into a larger cavern that had several tree of its own. Over half of the roof was open to the sky, but he still had no way up. Luckily there was more ground than water in this part of the cavern system.

Rik paused as he saw some movement in the shallower water. It was barely noticeable, but several small waves disturbed the stagnant and still liquid. Immediately he pulled out one of his pistols-the one he had fired with back in the cave, which had six shots left on its energy cell. He tracked the waves as they slowly got closer and closer to him. He backed away from the edge of the water, keeping his gun at the ready.

As they reached the edge of the water, the waves suddenly ceased. For several moments Rik saw nothing...

SPLASH!

iHISSSS!/i

Then a gigantic serpent like creature reared its head as it burst from the waters and lunged for Rik. He fired his pistol once, and managed to blow a chunk of meat from near the middle of its length, but the serpent still slammed into him head first. Once he was on his back it began to wrap itself around him, trying to constrict him like an Anaconda-which this species was similar to except for the fact that it had venom.

But Rik managed to fire his gun again and blow two more holes through the overlapping layers of flesh. The serpent hissed and released him, parts of its length hanging by strands of flesh and scales. As it tried to escape back to its watery home Rik got to his feet and snarled, firing again into its head with a single shot and blowing it in half. The entire length flopped down and didn't move again.

"Florpin' snakes!" Rik shuddered. "If it's never worms, it's isnakes/i." He shook his head. "I hate this swamp."

Then he stiffened as he heard the sound of shifting earth and rock behind him, along with wood snapping. He slowly turned as a hulking shape rose from under the supposedly solid ground Rik had been inches away from, revealing another smaller pond under it. This figure was gargantuan in comparison to the snake, and was bipedal.

It placed one tree trunk thick arm in front of it and planted its webbed palm on the land next to Rik, and its other hand on the other side of the Irken. Then, it slowly leaned down as the dome shaped on its head split into four segments and revealed a large beak surrounded by writhing tendrils that snaked out, reaching for food.

"...well this one ain't too bad!" Rik grinned. "How's it goin' big fella! Man you're one big Coltra Beast! Were you born here?"

The beak opened and a shrill cry made Rik flinch as the noise assaulted his sense of hearing. Groaning in annoyance, he raised his pistol and fired the last two shots into the beast's beak. The beak reared back as blood spurted from his beak, shrieking in pain. Rik whistled casually, popping the empty energy cell out and slipping another cylindrical cell into place. As the beast looked down at him again-not so much look as directing its mouth based off of its sense of hearing Rik took aim with his pistol again.

"Open 'er wide big guy!"

It did so, and Rik fired two more shots into its mouth and then another into its right arm at the elbow joint. The beast swung its left arm out and sent him flying through the air.

"Whoaaaaaa craaaaa-" Rik landed in a tree, and spat out some wet leaves. "...gross."

SNAP!

He looked down and saw a large crocodile like monster that was leaping up out of the deep water it was in-and in which the tree was in to take a bite out of Rik. The Irken yelped and climbed up. "Aw hell I can't catch a break!"

In addition to the crocodile monster, the Coltra was marching through the water-which barely reached its knees towards Rikalo. It could pick him up out of the tree easily and then either eat him or let the second monster eat him-both very painful demises for the unfortunate Irken. Scrambling up the tree, he looked down and saw the crocodile monster clawing its way up the tree, snapping viciously as it persisted.

"Ok...how do I get rid of the two of you?" Rik wondered aloud as he neared the top. "...ooh, idea!"

The Coltra beast reached down for him, but Rik leaped up to a higher branch at the last second. The crocodile like beast leaped up, and ended up chomping on the hand of the Coltra. Shrieking in pain and outrage, the beats swung its arm up, taking the large alligator beast with it. Rik leaped from a higher branch and landed on the edge of the circle surrounding the beak and mass of tentacles on the Coltra beast's shoulders.

"Okay big boy, time for a treat!" Rik grabbed one of the spare energy cylinders from the pockets of his coat and held it in one hand as he managed to grasp the edge of the armoured skin. He felt around with his thumb and found a button on the flat side of the cylinder. It was meant to open the cell so that Rik could hook it up to a machine and recharge it...but trying to open a fully charged cell made it into a makeshift grenade. With one spent cell, two more in his pistols, another two in his rifle that was close to being drained, and this one he had fourteen more leftover cells. He had to be more conservative with them after this.

Pressing the button, he waited until the beak open and tossed the cell in. It was glowing dangerously, giving out a 'beep' that slowly repeated itself and sped up with every second.

Both monsters paused as the sound of the energy cell's containment alarm pierced the thick skin of the Coltra. The Coltra had been holding the crocodile beast out with one hand while the other was reared back to smash it. Meanwhile the crocodile beast had been clawing at the Coltra's arm. Slowly they both looked down at the Coltra's stomach, and then at Rik, who casually walked out onto the Coltra's shoulder.

"Toodles!" He hopped off of the stunned Coltra's arm and landed on dry land. "Ah...I could really go for another-"

BOOM!

SPLAT! Blood ,gore, and chunks of meat splattered Rik from behind as both monsters were destroyed by the blast.

"...idrink/i," He finished, arms crossed and a pout on his face. "And maybe a shower too, I gotta get this stink off me."

Xxx

Hours later, Rik sat around a fire, roasting a piece of what was left of the Colta beast-or maybe that crocodile monster...or a combo perhaps? Rik couldn't tell, they all looked bloody and ripe for cooking to him either way.

He still had yet to find a way out of what amounted to be a crater or sink hole. The swamp water poured down from several waterfalls into a lake nearby that proceeded to fill up the cavern and then pour off into smaller ones. It might have flooded some areas in deeper, smaller caves, but he had no idea nor the inclination to find out.

"Ah...nothin' like a good ol' fashion camp fire," He sighed in content. "Now...I wonder if I can get any music on my radio...can I?" Ignoring the fact that he was talking to either himself or a skewered piece of meat over a fire, Rik turned on his PAK radio and tried to find a frequency. He stopped as he heard a voice on one...

iHer voice/i.

"iHello? Who is using my frequency, this is a private line!/i" She sounded indignant and frustrated...yet still every bit as lovely as the day he met her.

"...Darlin'," Rik whispered the old pet name he had for her.

There was a silence; most likely De was shocked by the voice of her estranged husband. "iR-Rikalo?/i"

But he had already hung up, deactivated his PAK transmitter and damn near considered ripping it out. Then he rounded on the Camera Drone as it revealed itself once more. "Alright you, talk!"

b"'Bout what?"/b

Rik grabbed the drone and roughly slammed it into the ground again and again in a frenzied rage. It cried out and yelped-though it was not damaged by the assault. b"Yow! Hey what the hell is with you?/b

"More like what the ifuck/i is with my iwife/i being in this tournament you-you-" Rik couldn't even make some witty insult or pet name to call the drone; instead he just tossed it away. The result was it bouncing back and forth off of multiple trees like it was a pinball.

Once it regained control of itself, it wobbled dangerously as it floated back over to him. With one hand it rubbed the side of its shell near where its eye was. b"How about we start from the beginning...what the hell is wrong?"/b

"My wife! She was just on the radio!" Rik snarled. "De Rien! Why the hell is she on this planet?"

b"Oh...contestant De Rien? She's here voluntarily!"/b The drone said-if it had a mouth it may have smiled brightly like a student who answered a teacher's question correctly.

Then it was forced to repeat the pin ball treatment by Rik, who kicked it like it was a soccer ball this time. When it returned to him it was more annoyed than confused. b"Okay seriously, cut it out! I won't answer you if you keep hitting me!"/b

"De would inever/i enter this tournament willingly!" Rik snapped. "She's a mother, she has two damn children and I know that she avoids these tournaments like the plague!"

b"Well maybe it has something to do with her execution sentence?"/b

Rik felt a chill run up his spin. "E-execution?"

b"Yep, records show the empire found her and set a date for her execution just a few days ago."/b The Drone replied. b"Maybe she entered to win immunity?"/b

Rik turned away from it, stumbling over to a tree and leaning on it, trying to take deep breaths to avoid hyperventilating. His wife, his De, was in Blood Sport like he was! He had come here so he could win and be allowed to live with her and the kids again-minus the Empire soldiers that would search for them on a daily basis.

He still remembered how she yelled at him as he stormed out the door. He had told her that he was leaving for the safety of her and the kids...when he heard Fren shout from the second story window of their house.

i"Daddy?"

Rik turned and looked up to where Fren's window was open. The Irken child looked frightened, and with good reason. It was not often that he and De Rien yelled, and they never yelled at one another so much. He knew something was going on that would shatter that tranquil childhood world of his forever.

"Go back to sleep kiddo," Rik said, managing against all odds to get out that signature cocky and confident attitude that projected a relaxed air to Fren so many times. "Dad's just gotta go handle a few things."

Like getting the empire to leave his family alone.

"Where are you going dad?" Fren asked, persisting in finding the truth.

De could be heard sobbing from within the house. Every second made Rik want to forget this and just run back inside, but he remained glued to the driveway of the property. He exhaled, shaking despite the warm night.

"Fren, it'll all be fine," He said. "I'm gonna just go and make the bad people leave us alone."

"And you'll be back?" Fren asked cynically. "Why do you have your guns? You always told me you'd never take them out of that box in your room!"

And indeed it was where Rik had locked his weapons ever since he had finally settled down with De. He put aside pistols and rifles for his wife and kids and hadn't ever looked back until tonight. Seeing Fren now almost broke his will.

"Sometimes...you gotta break a promise to make things right Fren," Rik said. "Now listen...I'll be gone for a while...but I'll be back. And until then you've gotta take care of mom and Ouri, you got that?"

"But dad, why are you leaving?" Fren wailed. "Please don't!"

"HEY!" Rik raised his voice, making Fren halt-though the smeet was still bawling silently. "Fren, look at me!"

Fren wiped his eyes, shaking as his younger brother Ouri joined him.

"I /iwilli be back," Rik said. "And when I do I will never leave again. But until daddy gets back, you have to be good for mom. Do you understand me?"

Fren nodded. "Y-yeah..."

"Okay...I love you kids," Rik said, feeling a drop trickle down his left cheek. "I don't want to leave...I really want to stay...and I know you want me to stay...but I'll be back."

"P-pwomise?" Ouri said loud enough for Rik to hear. He held up one hand, his pinky finger sticking out.

"Promise," Rik returned the gesture. "Now you two get to bed..."

And wake up to find dad wasn't coming back for a long time./i

Rik straightened up, having regained control of himself. He slowly turned to face the drone. "Am I facing her?"

b"I do not know, and if I did I couldn't tell you for a while,"/b The Drone rotated right and left-ishaking/i its head in a way. b"Why do you care anyways?"/b

"She's my wife, numb bolts!"

b"...what's a wife?"/b

DOW! A laser slammed into its shield, and it quickly hid behind a tree. b"You are iso/i touchy!"/b

Xxx

I edited this a bit. For the record Rikalo entered several caverns that were right below the surface and were open to the sky in some parts. The swamp vegetation had ended up growing inside some of the larger ones that have enough sun light, along with bringing some wild life in with it and a lake's worth of water.

End of Part Two.


	3. Chapter 3

The Blood Sport Round One Part One

I don't own Invader Zim or Keith

iAfter making his way out of the caverns, Rikalo must traverse a swamp filled with beasts much larger than the few he encountered before, and an opponent who is loyal to the Empire and has no problem with killing a 'defect' like Rik. While he fights, Rik is distracted repeatedly by the thoughts of his wife, and whether she is safe./i

I'll try to get 2000-3000 words in for part one, see if I can start Round One off shorter than my usual entries (which are very long most of the time). I need quality over quantity.

Xxx

RIKALO VS KEITH

Part One

The creature was small and looked eerily similar to a rat from Earth, but with blew fur, a longer tongue, and...iwings/i. It was sniffing the pile of meat that had been left in the middle of the clearing, suspicious of its origins. But it smelled so good to the little D'nubin Rat, which was part of a numerous but weak species that was prey for the larger predators of the Naharan swamp. It eagerly chewed on a piece, savouring the taste.

But as it gorged itself on the feast, it failed to notice a red dot of light appear on its for.

DOW! The poor D'nubin's head exploded into fragments of bone mixed with globules of brain matter splattered a sickly pinkish colour due to the blood. Its body went limp, its limbs and tail twitching several times as it's killer straightened up from his position on a branch above. He slid the carbine onto his back and climbed down by using his PAK legs to create drag on the thick trunk of the tree. He hopped off and landed on his feet, folding the razor sharp PAK legs and then picking up the corpse of the D'nubin. "I prefer bigger, but I reckon you'll do just fine fer now."

Rikalo 'Rik' retrieved the small stash of fire wood wrapped in his coat-to keep it dry and then set about making a fire pit. Soon he was enjoying the D'nubin rat, which was reduced to a skeleton in minutes. The Irken gunslinger leaned back against the trunk of the tree he had spent an hour waiting in for the D'nubin to come along. The meat he had used was rotting and probably had something from the swamp water he had fished it out of, so he dared not to try tasting it in favour of fresh meat.

Stretching, Rik stared up at the morning sun, which had created a view worthy of a portrait as it peaked from behind thick clouds. Its rays turned grey white and focused on the swamp. To Rik it was like the passage of heaven...or how it should look. As the warm rays washed over him, Rik felt his peace come to an abrupt end thanks to a familiar and rather annoying voice.

"**ROUND ONE BEGINS NOW!"** The Camera Drone following him declared as it appeared. **"Contestant Rikalo, your first opponent shall be Contestant Keith!"** As it spoke it showed Rik an image of an Irken clad in the standard uniform, but with some red armour added that protected his torso and shoulders. He had a set of goggles that were kept above his eyes in the image, revealing the red-brown shade of eye colour the Irken possessed. The Irken was shorter than Rik-though he didn't much care for height and was no doubt younger than Rik, perhaps as eager to serve as he had been before Red ordered his death.

Just looking at the soldier's image made Rik clench his hands into knuckles and narrow his eyes. Standing up, he pulled his coat on and then checked all of his weapons. His two pistols and his rifle-currently in standard mode were strapped securely to him, and his hidden knife held in an interior pocket of his coat. He looked to the drone. "Try and shut your mouth for this fight, partnah'."

"**No promises,"** The drone faded from view.

Xxx

Several miles away, Keith trudged through the muck, holding his rifle up and away from the water to avoid damaging it. So far he had been forced to fight off several native creatures of the swamp, and avoid dropping into the deep water where he would either melt or be swallowed whole. Sinking down into waist deep water, he scrambled to get out before the water either seeped in under his clothes or something grabbed him. Standing up on solid ground, he stuck his tongue out in disgust. "There's a hot sunny desert, a nice deserted island, a winter wonderland, and a mountain range. But _noooo_ I have to fight here first!"

The situation only got worse earlier when his supplies had been severely depleted after most of his provisions were lost to several smaller creatures that had crawled all over him, trying to grab at him in any way to bite into his flesh. He managed to lure them away by tossing his food packs after opening them, but that left him without any food.

His stomach growled; reminding him of the discomfort he would experience within the coming hours or days if he did not find a source of food. But then he detected a strange and somewhat satisfying scent in the air. He sniffed around a bit, and then saw a stack of smoke nearby...

A camp fire!

Grinning, Keith checked his rifle before licking his lips. "Alright fella', sorry I gotta do this but it's me or you and I'm _hungry._"

He crawled through the bushes, intent on his target. The scent got stronger, taunting him in his hunger driven state. He finally peeked out into the open and saw it, glistening and greasy over an open fire. And a figure was sitting next to it, a hood drawn over its head. A pack with several indiscernible objects spilling out of it sat within the circle of light the fire cast over the clearing, which was mostly hidden from the rays of the morning sun.

There was no time to waste; his opponent was in sight and he had food waiting to be eaten! Keith restrained himself, reminding himself that hunger was no excuse for acting rashly. He had to treat this like an ordinary job, a quick and clean kill so he could collect the spoils: badly needed supplies. He slowly brought his rifle to bare, lying on his stomach and lining it up with the figure sitting at the fire.

For an infamous outlaw-who's name even Keith had heard here and there this Rikalo sure made it too easy...

Far too easy.

Keith realized that it was most likely a trap...more like _definitely, without any doubt_ a trap. But what could he do?

Spring the trap and draw Rik out. No doubt he expected Keith to eagerly go for the food immediately. He would seek Rikalo out once he was in the open, he would be ready...spring his own trap. He brought his goggles down over his eyes and locked right on to the figure...only to see a gleam of reflected light coming from the suddenly very mobile hooded figure.

Startled, Keith sat up as he realized that this was no some decoy that Rik had constructed when the Irken fired his pistol.

DOW! The shot slammed into Keith's chest, sending him off of his knees and onto his back with a cry of shock mixed with pain. His armour was suddenly constricting his chest, a burning feeling rising from the impact site of the shot. Gasping and coughing, Keith worked to remove the armoured chest plate, sliding it up over his head and tossing it away as it slowly began to melt. He looked towards Rik, who tossed aside the tarp he had been wearing-which had also hidden several large pieces of wood he had set on either side of himself in order to make it appear that he had set up a decoy in his place to draw Keith out.

It was a double trap! Rik straightened out his coat. "Well that armour sure must'a been somethin' if it saved yer life from the first shot. Props to yah, partnah'." He examined his revolver-esque pistol, moving the cylinder in it out to the side before snapping it back into place. "But come on, y'all are makin' this way too easy, kid."

Keith's eyes narrowed. He already hated this guy...but he couldn't deny that Rik was without a doubt a bona fide thread as an opponent. He set a trap that Keith would never fall for, only to pull the carpet out from under his feet...and his aim wasn't too bad either. Snatching his rifle up, Keith rolled to his right and stopped behind a thick tree. In that time Rik fired two more shots that barely missed Keith, who had curled up in the middle of his move so that he would present as small a target as possible.

Spinning out from cover on the other side of the tree, he fired three shots, but Rik had already moved by then. The lasers shot away into the dense foliage and struck a rock or the ground, or maybe some tree. Keith followed Rik's movements as the dark clad Irken gunslinger lunged, leaping into cover and rolling, kicking up dirt and mud. Keith fired two more times, mostly blind firing as he dashed across the clearing, passing by the fire and the soon to be burning chunk of meat hanging over it.

"Yer aim's as bad as mah cookin', shrimp!" Rik called to Keith, switching from his pistol to his rifle, which he had set to its main mode of fire. He fired two quick shots back at Keith, who threw himself to the ground when he saw that Rik was packing more than just a pair of pistols.

The assassin did not react to the taunting, knowing that Rik was expecting him to be the classic die-hard-loyalist like most average Irkens would be: reacting to the slightest insult by the 'defective Irken'. He would not give in; he had to be smart about this. But first he had to get in close, where Rik would be defenceless. His guns would do him no good at that range, and Keith didn't see a blade or any weapon that would imply that Rik could fight in hand to hand combat. So the assassin rushed forward, firing his rifle at Rik's general location in order to keep the gunslinger pinned down and unable to react until Keith leaped over a rock and landed right next to the surprised Rikalo.

With a shout, Keith swung the butt of his rifle towards Rik's face. The gunslinger leaned back out of the way so that Keith's blow went wide, and then allowed himself to fall on his back and kicked out at Keith, knocking him away and giving Rik time to get up and kick out at Keith's rifle, which was knocked from his grasp. Keith immediately knew that his original plan was perhaps lacking some of the finer details about Rikalo's combat experience.

Nevertheless, he would not be deterred and he would not be defeated. Keith got to his feet and swung a right cross at Rik, not putting his full weight into the hit-as he knew that Rik would most likely manage to dodge or counter. He had to pull back if Rik grabbed his wrist to try and put him into a form of arm lock. His theory proved correct, as Rik grabbed his wrist and tried to bend his arm in one direction. But Keith pulled his arm free and elbowed Rik in between the ribs.

Then Keith twisted clockwise, bringing his left fist up in a vicious haymaker that struck Rik across the jaw, snapping his head to the side. Rik moved with the blow a bit, but it still hurt like hell. Damn, that kid knew how to hit. But his right leg came up and kicked Keith in the gut, making him double over a bit while Rik leaned back, propelled by the force of his kick and placed his hands on the ground, and lifted his feet off of the ground, back flipping away from Keith once and landing in a crouched position.

Keith grabbed for his rifle again-Rik was close enough to hit but too far to counter attack, but instead he held up a blue slug creature. Blinking once in confusion, the two Irkens exchanged a look.

"You might wanna get rid of that."

"Why?"

"That's a Methane Slug," Rik explained. "Real dangerous."

"Methane Slug?"

"Yeah, it figures that they'd have something like that on Nahara, those things were wiped out in most other places because they kept exploding," Rik said. "Ergo, iMethane/i Slug. Although the proper term would be 'Combustion Slug' since it ain't really Methane it's carrying, but a gas that's kinda similar, except it explodes on contact with oxygen. Usually in its natural environment this never happens since animals keep their distance and the thing's slow and has a short life span. But the slightest pierce in the flesh and it explodes...killing anything in a hundred feet."

"HOLY-!" Keith tossed the Methane slug away, watching it sail away over the bushes as Rik yelped.

"You idiot!" The red eyed Irken dove to the ground as Keith realized the fatal mistake he had made in tossing the slug out of panic.

**KRA-THOOOOOOM!**

The explosion from the slug rocked the swamp, scaring away even the largest of creature. Trees were torn from their roots deep underwater and thrown into the air. Luckily the two Irkens were in a solid part of the swamp with firm ground and no water for several dozen feet in every direction. By the time the explosion from the Methane Slug ended they had been pelted with dirt, rocks, and twigs. There was a crater where the Methane slug had exploded, slowly being filled in by water that poured in from all around it.

"Wow..." Keith stared, jaw dropped.

"Like I said," Rikalo said in a now slightly slurred tone. "Methane slug."

The gunslinger climbed to his feet as the assassin regained his composure and took advantage of the debris surrounding them to hide. Rik sighed, taking out one of his pistols and holding it in an appropriate stand-by position. "Alright kid, this is really grindin' my gears, so no more playin' around." Rik now had a dangerous glint in his eyes. "To quote perhaps the only piece'o human drama I'll ever read: Dead for a Ducat, ass hole!"

Xxx

End of Part One

Hamlet's the intellectual property of William Shakespeare

Rikalo is mine

Keith is property of DeviantArt's InvaderTamTheIrken


	4. Chapter 4

The Blood Sport Round One Part Two

Rikalo Vs Keith

I do not own Invader Zim or Keith

_So far the round goes in Rik's favour, save for minor mishaps including an exploding snail and Keith has fled into the surrounding foliage to avoid confronting the gunslinger. Now the terrain changes, and a tomb shall be._

Xxx

Part Two

"_Rik? Time to get up," Rik felt as though he were in heaven when he heard the voice. All of his worries, his pain...his wounds, all were now gone. He slowly rose from the soft mattress and rubbed his eyes as she came in. She had no body armour on; neither of them wore their signature 'battle' clothing ever since they finally settled, just a plain purple dress that matched her eyes. Hands on her hips, she smiled down at him. "You're letting yourself go Rik, you'll be waking up by lunch time every day at this rate."_

_In response Rik slowly got up and placed his hands on her hips, drawing her closer. She let out a purr as she placed one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his right shoulder._

"_I wouldn't mind wakin' up to this every day," He said before kissing her-_

And screaming as he awoke, pain shooting up from every part of him as his senses were set on fire. After several moments he took control and clenched his teeth, arching his back a bit against the weight on top of him. The rocks shifted, but did not move.

Groaning with the effort, Rik managed to free his arms-amazingly neither of them was broken. The pain mostly came from being pummelled by the falling rocks, which were thankfully too small to shatter any of his bones or crush him. He slowly dug his way free, but found that as his eyes adjusted to the dim setting that he was in what appeared to be a small cavern or...

Wait, now he remembered all of the damn details leading up to his rocky prison. All because of Keith...no doubt that little bastard was dancing on top of the pile Rik was buried under. Thank god the structures that the assassin had collapsed on top of him were so close together, some of them must have struck one another and missed Rik by inches...

Yes, now he could discern that one of the stone pillars was lying to his left, and one that would have crushed Rik was now leaning on it. It formed most of the small cavern he was trapped in. The gunslinger managed to clear himself enough room and activate the lights on his PAK. A quick check confirmed that his weapons were not damaged by the debris, thankfully enough, but he wouldn't have minded it if it meant he didn't have to feel like he was used as a bowling pin.

Speaking of bowling pins...

Xxx

**Two hours ago...**

"Damn florpin' lil' coward," Rik grumbled as he stomped through muck that reached his ankles. "Makin' me follow him through a forest, _kisgaree shoo-shen_. I'll strangle him with those stupid little goggles."

As he moved further and further north he noticed that the rays of the sun, which was now high in the sky with noon a few minutes off only seemed to become stronger. That was a bit of a paradox for Rik, who found that it was usually the opposite effect if you travel far enough north. But soon the trees and mud began to thin out and the ground became more firm and dry...and then grass would start to give away to solid rock and dirt, and then _sand_.

"Oh please be a beach with hot women and lil' drinks with umbrellas in them," Rik silently prayed before he was no longer protected by the shade of the trees. He slowly looked up, hoping to find the ocean...

And saw it, except it was not the ocean of cool water that he had hoped to drink from. Instead it was just more sand, going off in every direction until dunes and hills blocked Rik's sight. He saw a set of semi-fresh foot prints, the ones part of the trail that he had been following ever since Keith had escaped hours ago from their fight.

He had reached the Naharan Desert, the very opposite of his hopes and dreams-which were now crushed into powder. He felt sweat dripping from his brow and wiped it away with his sleeve.

"That kid's out here somewhere," He muttered. "And when I get my hands on him he's gonna _stay_ out here 'til there's nothin' but bones'n rags left of him."

The trail was fading already, sand slowly beginning to fill up the prints left by Keith, who's steps were heavy and rushed in his escape from Rik. The gunslinger had no trouble following them, but once or twice almost lost the trail and had to look further ahead until he found a trace of the trail and started anew.

After perhaps a full hour of marching through scorching heat, Rik cleared a dune and looked upon a plateau of some sort jutting out of the sands. Solid rock, strong, and there were rock formations set on top of the natural looking plateau. The ground wasn't even much anywhere, with parts of it rising higher than the rest, but the plateau had large rocks rising out of it, making pillar like structures. They were not perfectly smooth or carved, but they almost looked like they had been intentionally planted there to create a sort of representation of natural complexity. Looming above the pillars towards one end of the plateau the ground rose up like a staircase, and a large arch that overshadowed all else.

Rik pulled out his rifle and peered through the scope. He scanned the plateau for several moments before spotting some movement in the shadow of one of the pillars. With the sun having moved enough that it was no right overhead, the pillars provided a reasonable amount of shade. A spot of red and green could be spotted here and there through the scope of his rifle.

Setting the weapon aside, Rik took off his short sleeved coat and tied it around his waist, leaving him in his long sleeved red shirt. When that did little to relieve him of the heat he sighed irritably and took off his shirt next. If any women had the urge to swoon, it died when they saw all of the scars. Stab wounds, slice wounds, burn wounds, etc; Rik's body was marked with just about everything you could think of. Though some thought scars were attractive, Rik's were just too graphic to like.

Making sure that all of the pockets in his coat containing energy cells were sealed, Rik tied his shirt around his right bicep and took up his rifle, sliding down the sandy slope. Keith had obviously spotted him by now, but he would be preparing his ambush. All Rik had to do was approach at an angle that minimized the chance of being spotted.

"**Pssst!"** The drone appeared at his side, following Rik up the rocky slope. **"You reached one of the significant areas of Nahara."**

"Significant areas?"

b**"Meaning this area has a specific name to it,"**/b The drone clapped its tiny metal hands. **"It's not an official part of Blood Sport, but the announcers like to give these areas names to make it sound more dramatic. These are the Pillars of Blood."**

"Pillars...of Blood," Rik stared at the drone. "...you guys have a real franchise in the makin' there. What's next, Tunnel'o Blood? Blood Flakes?"

Sensing Rik's sarcasm, the drone vanished. **"Just go and kill something already."**

Rik reached the edge of the plateau, hugging the ground. He felt the sun bearing down on his exposed shoulder blades as he peered onto the plateau and scanned for Keith. Not finding any sign of the soldier, Rik scrambled over the edge and rolled on his side until he was right behind a rock nestled between two of the pillars. One pillar, the one on his left was wider and offered more protection, so he quickly transferred to cover behind that one. As he moved, a laser struck the ground inches from his right foot before he dove behind the pillar.

"You're fast, friend!" Keith called from the shadows of the pillars. "Not some common merc either or I'd have given you a new hole in your head by now!" His voice bounced off of the pillars, making it hard to tell where he was speaking from. The wind picking up made it even harder for Rik to figure out where he was...

So the only option was to use this strategy against Keith himself then.

Rik left his coat and shirt behind the pillar and crawled on his belly, keeping low and out of sight, in the shade of the Pillars of Blood. Once he was safely concealed by the imposing structures he risked replying to Keith's earlier statement. "And you ain't some two bit Invader who thinks a shiny SIR and a pat on the head from the Tallest makes him invincible!"

"I know, I hate those types!" Keith laughed. "Thanks for noticing! Oh and heads up."

TSEW! A laser shot over his head, barely missing his antennae-which he realized stuck out! Throwing himself ahead, Rik fired his rifle in short controlled bursts, carving up rock and shooting up dust. He spotted Keith scrambling up to higher parts of the plateau, towards the large rock arch. The goggle wearing Irken snapped his rifle up and fired a trio of shots that missed Rik by a mile, but did their job by making him hesitate in getting closer and allow Keith to take cover again.

Hanging his rifle over his shoulder by its strap, he took one of his pistols from his belt and crawled again, using the natural terrain of the plateau to cover his approach. Keith darted from cover and stopped in the middle of a make shift path towards the large arch. He fired his rifle again, and the first two shots almost hit Rik. The third would have, along with four or five other shots if he didn't throw himself to his right and unfold his PAK legs, forming an energy shield with them that allowed him to block the lasers.

"Did you take your shirt off just for me? I'm flattered, cow boy!" Keith called as he slowly backed up.

"Oh you know me," Rik replied as he folded his PAK legs back up while sliding into a shallow ditch that kept him hidden from view. "Anything' for our viewin' ladies!"

Keith turned and bolt towards the arch, but stumbled on some loose rocks. The noise along with his own urgency distracted him from Rik until the red eyed gunslinger popped out from the ditch where it passed near Keith and fired his pistol once. The bullet tore through Keith's left arm, and he shrieked as he felt the flesh and bone incinerating with each passing second. He looked at his arm as the appendage risked falling off, now dangling from his shoulder by strands of flesh and muscle. He couldn't even feel it now!

It began to dawn on him as he managed to tumble behind a rise on the slope leading to the arch that Rik was indeed several classes above the average mercenary if he had access to a weapon that could almost blow his arm off with one hit. Between that, his previous tactics and attitude this Irken was no doubt a part of or formerly a part of the Irken Military, perhaps the Advanced Infantry or an Invader...no, his skills focused more on direct combat instead of disguises and developing doomsday weapons. The brown eyed Irken produced a small canister from his belt using his good hand and tore the pin out using his teeth before he tossed the object...which emitted a high pitched beeping tone.

Rik spotted the grenade, but even as he tried to move to get out of range he knew it was too late. The canister exploded near the base of one of the larger pillars. The detonation weakened it so much near its foundation that it began to crumble and fall on the smaller ones surrounding it. This produced some messy parody of a Dominos Effect, with the Pillars of Blood beginning to collapse one or several at a time.

"Aw hell!" Rik shouted as he went in the direction of safety: the stone arch. He saw Keith up ahead with already a great head start despite his injured arm.

Debris fell around him while rocks pelted him from behind and above. There seemed to be no end to it all! Then a particularly heavy one hit him in the side of the head, and Rik lost control, tumbling to the ground and unable to get up. Rik looked up and saw one of the pillars, mostly intact falling towards him. Regaining control of his movements, he rolled to his left and got out of the way just in time! Then another pillar on his right fell down and ended up leaning on the already crashed pillar Rik had barely avoided.

Another rock hit Rik as he tried to rush out from under the second pillar, and he collapsed to the ground, blood flowing from his earlier head wound and several other ones caused by falling debris.

His eyes shut, and he knew no more...

Xxx

But he was alive and uninjured, with only this small prison of rock getting in his way. He peeked out through gaps of light in the earth and could see only more and more rubble from the Pillars of Blood. Keith was nowhere in sight until Rik found a hole that allowed him to see towards the stone arch. Keith's shape was just barely visible there, sitting down most likely to treat his wound.

As Rik prepared to break out of his shelter, his hand brushed over the pocket where he kept the picture of his family...and didn't feel the thin frame of the one thing he had left of his old life. He inhaled a shuddering breath and desperately searched for it...and found it shredded under several rocks. It must have fallen from his pocket when the pillar crashed on him.

Slowly picking what few pieces that were intact and in sight, his hand shook as he shifted through them...

The most he could see was De Rien's face, smiling up at him...

Squeezing the remnants of the photo, Rik clenched his teeth and exhaled through them. Looking up, he saw Keith again, still trying to treat the plasma wound to his arm.

He wouldn't live long enough to see if he would ever use his left arm again.

Rik unfolded all four of his PAK legs at once and charged their tips with energy...

KRA-THOOM!

Keith jumped to his feet, gasping in pain and clutching his arm as he looked at the cloud of dust thrown up by the explosion. Rik stepped out, his arachnid-esque legs retracting into his PAK and his hands clenched into fists. He was battered from his experience, but he was still a lot more combat prepared than Keith, who knew this all too well. His rifle was meant to be used with both hands-like any rifle, so Keith opted for a smaller pistol he pulled from his boot and tried to aim at Rik.

DOW! He fired, Rik moving to his left and throwing Keith's aim off. In his rush to keep Rik from getting close enough to fire he had little time to properly aim at the gunslinger. He missed again and again as Rik weaved back and forth, impossible to strike and assisted by the large amount of blood loss Keith was experiencing from his still flowing wound. The assassin found it harder to focus on the moving target than normal; by now he would have shot Rik six or seven times and been done with it!

Suddenly Rik was close enough-and Keith dizzy enough that when the latter fired a split second after Rik ducked under the sights of his pistol the former was able to reach up, grab the barrel of the pistol and jam the weapon back into Keith's face. This made Keith jerk back as his pistol was torn from his hands. A moment later Keith felt the handle of his own pistol strike him across the left side of his face, courtesy of a right handed swing from Rik.

As Keith tried to stumble back, Rik roughly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and tugged him back, hitting him with his own pistol again. Keith coughed up blood, blindly trying to escape Rik, who hit him repeatedly with the pistol's handle while slowly forcing him down to the ground.

Keith's struggles began to slow as more blood stained the weapon. Rik did not let up, his antennae flattened to his head and his face twisted into a snarl as he savagely beat his opponent until Keith's face was a mass of swelling bruises, broken teeth, and a swollen eye with another that was staring through Rik. Keith probably couldn't even think straight anymore, much less realize he was still being attacked.

So Rik didn't draw it out anymore. He flipped the pistol around in his hand and jammed it into the side of Keith's head. The barrel was still hot, Rik only realized this when he momentarily pulled the barrel back an inch and saw burnt flesh on Keith's head. His own hand was swelling from holding the heated weapon for so long while using it as a club. He pressed it back against Keith's head, rotating it back and forth a bit. Keith let out a low rattling groan of pain, his eye slowly turning to focus on Rik as his awareness returned to him.

DOW!

The laser burned a hole right through Keith's head, an inch wide. The Irken's one visible eye clouded over, and his body stopped twitching.

Rik dropped the pistol and rose to his feet, looking down at the target of his fury. Taking slow, deep breaths, Rik stepped away from Keith and sat down in the shade of one of the standing pillars. He let his coat fall from his waist and untied his shirt, ripping off the left sleeve up to the elbow and tearing it into smaller strips that he tied around a deep gash on his left bicep and another on his right leg below the knee. He was just trying to stop the bleeding for now until he could properly treat them.

"**CONGRATULATIONS IRKEN RIK!"** The Camera Drone was back, waving its tiny arms enthusiastically. **"You have now moved on to the second round! Until then feel free to rest and recuperate!"**

"Thanks...now leave me the hell alone and don't you film anything," Rik growled at it.

"**Camera shy?"**

"No, I ain't a porn star, that's why." Rik tossed a rock at the drone, making it plummet to the ground before it vanished, flying away to recharge until it was called to deliver messages to Rik again.

After fifteen gruelling minutes of finding and treating the worst of his wounds and applying bandages and medical gauze to them Rik set his coat out flat on the rocky ground and lied back on it while pulling his shirt on. He used his supply bag as a pillow, crossing his hands under it.

"Round One..." He whispered. "Round One..."

And all he had needed to win was one little fit of rage.

Xxx

End of Round One!


	5. Chapter 5

The Blood Sport Round Two

I don't own Invader Zim or Strelok

Xxx

**PART ONE: Rik and the Recluse**

"This...is a transporter?" Rikalo 'Rik' stared at what appeared more akin to some sort of alien ruin of exotic design. It was made of stone-at least on the outside and in the shape of a hexagon. It had several pillars twice Rik's height surrounding it and perfectly aligned with each corner of the device. The patterns on the flat hexagon seemed to form a vortex moving inwards towards a blue dot painted at the center.

The 'transport' device stuck several feet up out of the sand. Rik sat on one of the three steps that led up to the flat surface; he was not willing to test it out yet. Though his injuries were no problem to him he was going to take his time before he met with his next foe. The bounty hunter dreaded it being his wife, and that was one primary reason for the stalling.

"**You bet! It totally is; don't let the appearance fool you."** Rik's personal camera drone nodded as it floated by sideways, and humming a sort of merry tune. **"Here in Blood Sport we need working teleporter devices to make sure you can reach your next opponent within a reasonable time."**

"Tell me who my opponent is first then!" Rik demanded. "And if you tell me that it's De Rien then I'm going to turn you into a soup bowl for my next dinner!" The drone actually backed away a bit, and would have been sweating if it had pours.

"**Oh don't worry, De Rien is facing down 'The Enforcer',"** The Drone floated down next to Rik's head and faced out ahead of him. It began to project an image of a humanoid figure in mid air. The blue lights slowly took on a shape of a being clad in a long coat and armour. **"But you on the other hand aren't so lucky. Your next opponent is...Strelok!"**

Rik had heard of that name before, and several others that seemed to be other titles or names given to him by different groups or individuals. He hadn't done much research on Strelok since he had not even met with the feared Imperialist Bounty Hunter, but he had lost contact with several contacts in Irken rebel groups and only had a vague rumor that Strelok was responsible for their deaths. If he was here then Rik would need any information he could acquire whether or not it was legal.

Strelok was covered from head to toe in armour and clothing that was generally along the same lines of being black. His weapons did not look like ordinary laser or plasma weapons but they still seemed deadly from what Rik could tell. He would have a chance to get a closer look later, and hopefully _after _Strelok was dead. The gunslinger checked the energy cylinders of his three weapons.

He had spent two of his two dozen energy cylinders and the current ones were close to being spent entirely, but he wouldn't replace them until they were all spent. If he did so then later in the middle of a firefight he might pick one and run out of ammunition a lot quicker. This would leave him exposed for an unacceptable amount of time and by his own mistake. He would rather know just how many shots his weapons had left.

"**Please note that due to technical difficulties I will take a minute before following you though this teleporter,"** The drone informed Rik. **"It is safe for use...just not to use immediately over and over."**

"Alright, I'm goin'. Good luck surviving the trip over." Rik privately began to access his PAK communicator, and placed a call in to a friend just as he stepped onto the teleporter.

He felt a sense of displacement, like he was being lifted off his feet and shot into the air at a million miles an hour. He shut his eyes as a blinding flash of pink consumed his vision and clenched his hands into fists. Teleporting was never fun, but Rik just didn't like the safety and health concerns that came with it: one example being that there was a good chance that every part of him could be scattered across a distance of two or three million miles by accident. Finally it was over and he was deposited back on solid ground.

The air was more humid, and cooler than the desert temperature he had endured until a moment ago. The sun was blocked by a cocoon of grey clouds that was spreading out further and further over the mountain range. Rik felt the wind pick up a bit and heard a distant rumble. The weather was taking a turn for the worse; not too unexpected for a region like this but it was happening far too quickly for his liking...

Maybe Invader 'Panic' Paneece could answer a few things for him before the Camera Drone followed him through. He contacted her, managing to bounce a signal off of an orbiting satellite.

"_Rik!"_ Of course she would know it was him, every computer she had could identify anybody who tried to contact her. But she sounded as though she didn't want to see him specifically. He'd ask about that afterwards.

"Yep, it's me Panny." Rikalo walked over to a tree and stood against the trunk as soft white flakes of snow began to drift down from the sky. He held one hand out and watched them melt into globules of liquid moments after touching the material of his glove. "I need a little info on my opponent and the rather peculiar weather I'm getting. The guy's name is Strelok and the weather's going from sunny to snowy faster than I used to binge drink."

"_O-okay!"_ Paneece definitely replied too fast and was trying to forget that she had inadvertently revealed that she did not want to talk to him. But what was it about? Priority one was information acquirement and her attitude could wait for later. _"Strelok...found him-oh...actually Rik there's something very wrong."_

"Give it to me straight Doctor Hacker; how bad is it?"

"_Not bad but...there is little information at all except for a list of confirmed or suspected killings on Strelok's part and a list of weapons Strelok is known to use."_ Paneece listed them. _"There's not even a gender, an age or a species listed here. Strelok...they're a ghost."_

If Paneece, who had hacked the Control Brains was saying that Strelok was a ghost then Rik had a justified reason to be concerned...possibly scared even. Rik zipped his black coat shut as the wind kicked up another gust and he began to feel the temperature drop faster. "Alright, download what you have to my PAK and tell me about this weather."

"_...got it. It's a condition for this round, artificially produced weather phenomenon triggered by a manipulation of the ocean current to carry colder temperatures across the planet. It's a form of terraforming and it can be reversed easily with the snap of the fingers but they won't do that until this is over. The mountain sector is getting heavy amounts of snow and wind with some isolated pockets of lightning strikes."_

"Are you keeping tabs on me?" Rik asked.

"_Just in case De ever asked me to,"_ Those words made Rik stumble in the snow.

"She contacted you?"

"_I talked to _her _after the first round."_ Paneece corrected him. _"She's very worried. I was just calling to let her know Ouri had taken a bit of a fall but that he's all better._" If she hadn't elaborated then Rik wouldn't have suspected anything, but she was being specific in an effort to avoid letting him ask her questions or give her more opportunities to mess up.

"_She was fine when I talked to her last; but she also sounded a little tired from her fight. Should I pass on any messages to her?"_

"...yeah, I'm sending you my radio frequency. If she survives this round and so do I...tell her to either call me with it or I'll just call her up myself." Rik said. "It's time she and I talked after so long...I owe her that much after what I've caused for her and the kids."

"_I'll make sure that she gets it Rik; just try to stay alive down there long enough for her to make that call to you."_

"Oh you know me Panny...I'm a survivor." Rik smiled humorlessly as he cut link. "Always have been, and I always will be."

Xxx

If Strelok had the opportunity then they would have just shot Rikalo and been done with it. But the Irken was cautious, and often used the thickening curtain of snow to his advantage. He had seen an image of Strelok no doubt and suspected that they would possess a fire arm. The bounty hunter had even dragged his coat through some snow so that it was covered in white to help create a camouflage. The natural snowfall provided for the rest of his form.

Strelok lowered their FSK-717 assault rifle as they judged the distance between them and their target. Even without the growing blizzard to interfere with any visual detection or the high winds to throw off the direction of any bullets Strelok would probably be lucky to even clip Rik at a distance like this. The Black Recluse set the rifle aside in favour of their IE-z15 machine pistol. If they could not finish Rikalo from a distance then they would simply have to get in closer and shoot him from an angle that would allow them to use as few bullets as possible to do the job. They only had so much ammunition after all.

But after Rik was dead Strelok could perhaps make use of that rifle they had seen the Irken carrying on his back. It was definitely not a projectile weapon; perhaps a direct energy rifle? If so it would be very accurate even in these conditions...

And knowing the infamous Rikalo 'Rik' he would hardly need it if he managed to face Strelok directly in a fair fight. Luckily they did not intend to give Rik that chance. The Black Recluse darted along a ridge on the opposite side of the valley Rik had teleported in to. They kept track of his movements until he reached a frozen lake. Rik had his hood up and was examining a tree.

The gunslinger unfolded all four of his PAK legs and began to slice branches and visible roots out. The snow had only started coming in minutes ago, so it was mostly dry enough for firewood still. Rik obviously thought that the blizzard or natural surroundings would hide it; or maybe that the daylight would reduce the chance of him being spotted. Amateur. Even if he somehow avoided making a smoke stack he would be leaving himself open to anything from a wild animal to say...a bullet passing through the back of his head.

Strelok took this chance to slide down the slope they were watching Rik from and took cover amidst snow laden trees near the lake. From here they could just see Rik as he got a fire going. Then Rik looked around cautiously before setting himself down. He pulled his hood up and vanished out of sight as the blizzard picked up again. For a moment Strelok was unable to see anything but white through their goggles.

Now this presented a bit of a worry for them. Had Rik been waiting for the blizzard to pick up and hide him from view? Was he planning something? Did he know that Strelok was watching him? According to everything they had heard Rik was anything but dumb. One of the top criminals of the Irken race did not survive by making amateur mistakes or else the measly 'Elite' Guard Corps would have gotten hold of him years ago.

There was only one plan that came to mind. First examine Rik's position for traps. If any are found then just spring them and then move in for the killing shot. Just one to the head or maybe a few to the upper body would be enough. Strelok began to rise to their feet when their left eye was momentarily blinded by a red light. They saw a thin red line tracing back to Rik's position.

Strelok realized the danger they were in and tossed themselves aside just before Rik fired his rifle. One shot passed through where Strelok's head would have been as the Black Recluse rolled to a crouching position and pulled their rifle back out-holstering the machine pistol.

"Well howdy there!" Rik called. "You'd be tall dark and handsome then? Nice to meet yah, buddy!"

Strelok expected Rik to brag about how he would win, or perhaps rant against the Empire. But instead Rik fell silent. Strelok peeked out from cover ever so slightly while keeping low and saw that Rik was completely gone. This was going to be a lot harder than the war slave had been.

Rik was in hiding, and this meant that he would not give Strelok a fair chance either. Good, they expected no less from somebody who successfully caused the empire so much trouble for so long. It would have been disappointing if Rik was flapping his mouth off-not to mention annoying. Strelok chose at that moment to move.

DOWDOW!

Two shots landed ahead of his foot when he took the first step. Strelok did not stop as their opponent had no doubt intended him to but instead dove forward and rolled. They had seen where the shot had come from and saw Rik just beginning to rise a bit as he adjusted his aim. Rik had changed the shape of his rifle into a longer shape and had extended a sort of strap attached to it so it was slung over one shoulder.

The weapon was held under his arm with one hand on the trigger and the other gripping a handle on the top...

Automatic laser gun!

Strelok dashed to the right as Rik fired the weapon, many lasers ripping through the trees and bushes around him. With a weapon like that he hardly needed accuracy when pointing in Strelok's general direction would be enough to land at least one hit. Strelok fired two quick bursts from his IE-z15 machine pistol before they dipped their right shoulder down and rolled sideways again. They stopped in a ditch and waited until Rik stopped firing.

The Irken heard the 'pop!' of the energy cell in the automatic rifle and cursed. Strelok was up and firing their machine pistol again. Rik felt one bullet dig into his side on the right and let out a groan of pain as he moved behind a tree. He folded his rifle up into its normal form and hung it on his shoulder before looking down at the bullet wound. It was bleeding, but it wasn't anything serious or fatal.

Strelok was maintaining their distance, changing to the FSK-717 rifle hanging from the Black Recluse's shoulder. They set it to the semi automatic firing mode and fired as Rik dove out from cover. Wait no...it wasn't Rik at all but just his coat! Strelok had fired three shots before they realized their mistake and Rik moved out from behind the tree in the other direction. In his outstretched hand was one of his revolver styled pistols.

DOW!

A single shot nearly melted through Strelok's chest armour and knocked them back. They stumbled a little and gasped lightly under their mask while moving back into cover. But Rik didn't stop moving as Strelok tried to stand back up straight and bring their rifle up again. The Irken pushed the barrel of the rifle up with one hand and then twisted while grabbing the main body of it with his other hand. When he had his back to Strelok and was crouched under their arms he wrenched forward and sent the rifle flying out of their grasp and against a tree.

Strelok cursed as they realized that they were at a disadvantage at close range. They jumped back in to avoid a lightning fast reverse heel kick from Rik. The red eyed Irken was more agile than Strelok would have given him credit for based off of his title as a Gunslinger. Obviously he didn't focus entirely on ranged combat though.

Fortunately Strelok didn't either. They pulled out their KA-BAR knife, and after pivoting out of the way of a diving tackle sliced upwards with a backhanded swing. He sliced Rik on the same side where his bullet had hit him earlier, and heard a satisfying grunt of pain as Rik rolled upon landing. Standing up, Rik holstered his gun and drew his own knife from his boot.

The Irken felt the cut on his right with his free hand and caused a stinging pain to flare up. Rik winced and held his knife in a basic stance while he and Strelok circled one another with their blades bared and their form reminiscent of wolves stalking one another. The Black Recluse darted forward, and then out of nowhere lowered himself down and sliced upwards again in a stabbing motion. Rik leaned back so that the blade missed his chin and stepped out of range of the backhanded swing Strelok followed up with. When they tried to chase after Rik and stab at his throat he knocked their knife arm aside with the forearm of his free arm.

Then Rik sliced through the fabric of Strelok's suit at the bicep on their knife arm. It drew blood and was more than enough to make Strelok retreat. They rolled backwards over one shoulder and snatched up their rifle with one hand and mounting their knife on the barrel in a bayonet style. Rik predicted what Strelok would do and drew his pistols again. He fired his left handed gun first, but the energy cell died after the second shot. By then Strelok returned fire while part of their left leg bore a nasty burn from getting clipped by the energy shot.

Rik had already moved behind a tree, which barely stopped the three shots Strelok fired before the Recluse dashed off into the foliage. Rik grabbed his jacket and tied it around his mid section. As he tied it off so it put pressure on his wound he grunted. "At this rate this thing'll be so stained with blood I'll smell like a butcher shop."

Then he grabbed his rifle and fished through his pockets for another pair of energy cells. With these next two spent he had a total of eighteen cells left in reserved...plus the one he'd have to replace in his pistol he'd have seventeen to spare. Damn, he was using up too much ammo far too early. He'd have to make every shot count or he'd be out of ammo before the next round-assuming that she survived this one.

Rik followed Strelok's trail, remaining a distance away from the foot prints themselves. Though Strelok disliked a direct confrontation they were more than proficient at setting a trap no doubt. If they had the drop on Rik then this fight would be over quickly.

Xxx

End of Part One


	6. Chapter 6

The Blood Sport Round Two

I don't own Invader Zim or Strelok

Xxx

**PART TWO: Baiting a Bounty Hunter, Bad Idea**

"What...the...hell..." Rik said after he observed the area Strelok had led him to. He had found himself in an elevated area that game him a view of not one, but two different corpses. He had only spotted them by accident while using his rifle to scan the area below. In one canyon under the remains of a rope bridge was what little was left of an Irken; in one less than a mile from that-Rik had to use his PAK's on board optical goggles to get a clear view of it, was the impaled body of another fighter on a sharp rock that jutted upwards.

"Yeesh, hope I never meet whoever did those two in," He muttered, and paused as he had an afterthought...

He didn't want to see them unless one of them was his wife...and that he didn't want his wife to end up fighting the two victors from here. Obviously they were vicious, professional, or both and more. He didn't want to venture a guess on who had killed the first. But the second...for him to be outright impaled on a rock that tall would mean he would have had to fall. There weren't any cliff close enough for a straight fall and he wasn't at an angle that indicated that he had landed at an angle...

So there were flying competitors most likely.

"Perrrrfect," Rikalo drawled, "I walked right into Death Valley."

"**Ooh that'll be a good name for this place later! Thanks!"**

"Oh dear sweet merciful mother of Miyuki if you're floating right behind me..." Rik turned to the camera drone.

"**It'll please you to know that De Rien is merely fighting the Enforcer," **The drone was circling him as it spoke.** "Very expendable, but very dangerous too."**

This was a bit of a relief, yet at the same time it only made Rik all the more worried for his wife. How strong was this Enforcer and why would something expendable be in this tournament? Usually just elite fighters or outcasts entered, but this Enforcer sounded like an official...

"Is this Enforcer an Imperial?" Rik asked.

"**In a manner of speaking, yes."** The drone tilted up and down to mimic a nod. **"But it is programmed specifically for this tournament as a way to even the number of competitors. Otherwise we might have to have a three way fight and complicate things."**

Good, so this thing was just tossed in to provide a little more entertainment. De Rien could handle some two bit flash cloned soldier any day. Rik found himself more at ease with this information. "Alright, is there anything else you wanted to tell-"

Suddenly Rikalo's PAK communicator activated as it received a signal, and made the Irken stumble as static filled the audio receptors of his antennae. He swore and lowered the volume to a tolerable level. "Who the hell is this?" He winced as he realized that it could be De. "De, darlin' is that you?"

Instead there was more static...with something speaking. He couldn't understand a word being said, but it was not De Rien speaking. The sender of the signal sounded very agitated, speaking quickly and with a higher pitched tone that indicated they were in distress at the very least. Soon the chatter died away, and a sort of tune filled the channel; it was almost like elevator music when Rik thought of a comparison for it. Soon that too faded away.

"Who the hell keeps on calling me?" Rik muttered.

"**Contestant, I would like to remind you that contacting outside assistance is-"**

Rik snapped. "I know already you god damn fish bowl! I'm not the one contacting this person, they called me! It happened back in the desert and it's happening again!" He had to raise his voice as the wind kicked up and the snow blew harder. He felt his coat flap violently in the clutches of the air current. "Now trace the damn frequency if you wanna know who's calling me!"

The Drone paused. "...who doing what?"

"Damn it stop playing with me!" Rikalo snatched the drone and shook it. "Tell me who called! Was it my wife? Was it somebody off planet? Tell me?"

TZZZZ! He scrambled back as he got an electric shock. The Drone flew up overhead. It sounded annoyed and displeased. **"I don't know what you are going on about contestant but you will stop this behaviour and refrain from damaging any camera units or you shall be discarded."**

"Mother florping-" Rik whipped out one of his pistols and fired at the drone. It squeaked and flew off into the rocks. After the third shot the pistol was empty-it was the one Rik hadn't refilled before. He almost tossed it away, but a rational part of his mind told him that he could not afford to throw away his weapons regardless of how he felt. He calmly replaced the energy cell-now having used up a third of his original two dozen and holstered the gun.

"Focus Rik...gotta find Strelok," He muttered to himself, even though he could not hear himself against the howl of the wind. He felt his limbs become heavier and numb as he walked. The snow came down harder now, and that message was repeating itself. Rik leaned against a tree, one hand placed on it while the other tugged down on his left antenna out of irritation.

"**Shut up already!**" He howled so loud that his voice echoed through the mountains for miles. He was shouting to the sky, to the stars hidden by the veil of clouds and the curtain of endless flakes of snow. He opened his eyes...

And felt his jaw drop as he managed to see past the clouds ever so briefly. Something was beyond the blanket of grey and white, and it was bright...generating a high pitched noise. The ground around him shook as this went on, and snow in the tree branches above which had once found ground to call home was jarred loose to fall upon the Irken. Rikalo shook the snow off of his face and looked up...but the light source was gone. The noise it generated still rang in his ears, but there was no evidence that it had ever been there at all.

And the message had just stopped playing itself.

"Okay, somebody had to see that!" Rik shouted, and his camera drone appeared as though summoned by the statement.

"**We here at Blood Sport do not mean to cause our contestants or viewers alarm, Contestant Rikalo,"** It said in an eerily pleasant voice. **"But you are making it difficult to maintain a viewer friendly broadcast. Please stop your ravings and continue with your fight."**

This thing was hiding something. It knew what the message was and it knew what that light was! The two were obviously connected and Rik was being kept out of the loop...but why?

Before he could further demand questions which the drone would most likely not answer Rik heard something. They sounded like gun shots...

_Thoomthoomthoom!_

_Crack!_

The tree next to him had been clipped by one of the bullets from the hasty burst that Strelok had fired from up ahead. Rik spotted the Recluse on the retreat and charged after them. With all of the powerful winds, Rikalo's partial camouflage, the heavy snow fall and the distance between them both Strelok would be lucky to hit him at all with that rifle. Rik wouldn't waste any ammo at this distance with just the vague hope of clipping the Black Recluse.

But then the figure was turning and lifting a bulky, rifle sized weapon-

_Thoom!_

An object was launched through the air towards Rik. The Irken dove to the side behind several rocks just before the projectile hit the ground-

_BANG!_

Rik was deafened, and he would have been blinded if he had his eyes open when the flash bang grenade Strelok had fired went off. He stumbled to his feet, the whole world around him was tilting and spinning. But he saw one speck of black growing closer and willed himself to bring his pistol up. Now this was like when he had finished off Keith, who had futilely fired without aiming at Rik. He couldn't make that mistake...

So instead Rik threw the gun at Strelok just as the Black Recluse was bringing up their FSK-717. The pistol bounced off of the mask that they wore and was enough to make them stop-mostly out of surprise at the simple tactic. Then Strelok fired their assault rifle at the retreating Irken, who dove down into a shallow ditch and rolled to the bottom. He lay on his side and held his head until the world stopped spinning.

Strelok was taking this slowly and carefully to avoid being seen again. They had to outmatch Rikalo, who had a sharp eye and impressive reflexes that would allow him to pick the dark clad bounty hunter out in an instant. Their heavy armour-which was partially melted and fusing to them in some places also served to hinder their movements and cause them to make several clumsy mistakes.

However Rik also made one critical mistake: he was trying too hard to get close to Strelok so he could finish the fight with a knife or disarm the Recluse so as to save ammo. The masked bounty hunter would take advantage of this stubborn determination. They pressed themselves up against a tree, the bark was covered in a thin layer of ice and underneath was dark enough to help disguise them if they sat down and curled into a ball with their cloak wrapped around them.

The lack of clear visibility was already a damper on Rik, so this would make it next to impossible to spot him from the angle Rik stood at. The Recluse was holding their hand gun under the cloak as Rik continued to wander closer with a small knife in one hand. He was scanning for any signs of Strelok and having zero luck. The Irken bounty hunter knew that if he could just keep Strelok close then the Black Recluse would be as good as dead-a fact that Strelok themselves knew and used as a reason to avoid and even run from Rik when he was close to finding him.

As Rik passed by Strelok was about to shoot him, but their muscles had grown stiff and slow. Their armour was becoming constrictive too, so by the time he brought his gun to bear Rik would have spotted it and fired twice already. Instead they satisfied themselves by scanning Rik for any weaknesses. They came upon what could have been an interesting one...

Rikalo may have lost the picture of his family in the desert; however the locket with a smaller picture of them when his son had just been born remained around his neck. It was easy for Strelok to spot the object. It was obvious of personal value to Rikalo-and they had no idea how right they were. If they could grab it, perhaps Rik would make mistakes in his attempts to get it back. Or at least Strelok might derive something from Rik which they could use against him for the same results.

Why else would a mercenary of Rikalo's reputation bring such a valuable and useless object here? For a form of motivation to fight perhaps...or perhaps it held a drug Rikalo favoured? No, Rik definitely showed no signs of any drug abuse despite the other vices he has been described to participate in. The flask he kept with him was meant for those moments anyways, so perhaps the locket held a reminder...a picture.

He was dead on.

Xxx

Rik grew frustrated after several minutes, but he did not let it show. If he did then Strelok would use that as a chance to attack on his own terms instead of Rik's. He needed to bring that masked jack ass into the open where he was helpless. But with the blizzard only getting worse Rik was certain that if Strelok's armour was adequately insulted then he would freeze long before the Recluse showed himself. Perhaps he would just wait Rik out and let him die in the snow...

No, it didn't match Strelok's profile. He wouldn't let the elements do his enemy in, and neither would Rik unless he was feeling sadistic...

The last time he felt that sadistic was when he found out about a bounty hunter being sent after his family long after he had been forced to leave them. He had tracked the Vortian mercenary down before he could even begin his mission and made sure he screamed a lot before he died. Starvation was an ugly way to go...

Especially with all of your limbs hacked off and your stumps treated and sealed.

Some of Rikalo's more sadistic thoughts began to emerge, and pondered ways to make Strelok die slowly. He pushed that part of him back; he didn't have time to turn into a raging berserker...not this time at least. He had to think his attack out carefully.

Suddenly Rik heard the crunching of snow under a boot and spun while bringing his PAK legs out. He formed an energy barrier that caused Strelok's bullets to ricochet off into the trees. One bounced right back and slammed into the Recluse's half melted armour. They grunted and lowered their machine pistol-with a now half empty magazine. Now was their chance!

Strelok dashed forward as Rik shut down the energy projectors built into his PAK legs. The shield had been impairing his vision, and made it easier for Strelok to lunge and tackle the Irken. They both rolled in the snow as Rik used Strelok's momentum to shove him off only to be dragged along down a slope. Strelok found the locket as he grabbed for Rik's neck and tore the thin chain, scattering the tiny metal links into the snow where they vanished.

They both shoved off from one another and rolled as they reached the bottom of the hill. Strelok gripped the locket in one clenched fist while bringing their IE-z15 machine pistol back out of its holster. Rik didn't bother with a gun; instead he threw a snow ball right into Strelok's goggles. The Recluse swore and fired blindly while using one arm to wipe the snow away.

Rik had taken cover in the surrounding rocks and ditches, and had his rifle unfolded into its primary mode. He pressed himself back against a rock and ignored some snow that slipped down the back of his coat and shirt. He bit his lower lip and felt his gut clench as he resisted the urge to gasp or shiver.

"_She looks beautiful,"_ The voice was sophisticated and not as rough as how Rik expected the Recluse to sound. _"Isn't she another of the competitors here?"_

So the Recluse could talk, but what was he-

Rik gasped out loud as he realized that the light weight of the locket pressing against his chest through his shirt was gone...He glanced out from cover, only to move back when Strelok fired a single shot from his machine pistol in his direction. The Recluse held the weapon in one hand and the locket in another by what was left of the thin chain it was attached to. _"Oh yes, I remember now...De Rien, wasn't it?"_

"You son of a-!" Rik darted out from cover and fired. "**BITCH!**"

Strelok slid to the left and rolled into the cover of a pile of rocks clustered at the bottom of the slope. They hid them from view, but Rik would only have to blast through them. They had to work faster, make Rik come at him full of fury and cause him to make a mistake...

"_You know that if she isn't already dead, you'll probably have to kill her yourself!_"/i Strelok called, taunting the Irken gunslinger. _"And what about the two children in this? Are they all grown up yet? This picture looks only a few years old. How will they feel if one or both of their parents wind up dead from this?"_

It was working. Strelok couldn't see the result of his words, but Rik was seething. This was a repeat of when Keith had damaged the photo of Rik's family-which had only been of a different event during his time as a father and husband. To see that destroyed was infuriating but for this bastard to take the locket his wife had given him long ago...

Rik unfolded all four of his PAK legs and charged them up. No more talk, Strelok was a dead man walking!

All four appendages glowed at the tips and fired thin beams of energy. They cut into the rocks and caused steam to rise from the snow where it melted and evaporated within milliseconds. Strelok at first thought Rik would cut through the rocky barricade that they had taken shelter behind, but instead Rik was aiming at the area in front of it. The snow was melted away, and something else was beneath it. It wasn't solid ground...

It was ice! A thick barrier of ice covering a lake! The rocks were part of a shoreline which had been flooded under a foot or two of ice sticking up over the cover, and the ditches were from parts of the shoreline that had not yet been flooded by the water before it had frozen solid. Rik was melting through the barrier and now the water he had revealed was bubbling...boiling...

Strelok felt the temperature nearby rise steadily as Rik began to create a cloud of steam that covered most of the area around them. The Irken spread this effect to other areas, melting holes through the ice and causing steam to rise as he boiled the water with his PAK lasers. By the time he was done he had drained a tenth of his PAK's power supply, but now he had sufficient cover.

He was going in for a close kill so he could snatch the locket back without the risk of it being lost in the snow. Strelok's goggles were beginning to fog up, but they would still easily spot Rik's outline from a regular distance. They held their machine pistol up again and wiped their goggles with the thumb of the hand holding the locket.

"_Come on out and fight me,"_ Strelok looked at something etched into the inside of the locket and read the words. _"...Rikalo my only love?"_

Suddenly a foot hit the side of Strelok's head out of nowhere and sent them on their side into the snow. The foot pressed down against their skull as their hat flew off in mid fall. Strelok was for once taken off guard by the impulsive attack, and took several seconds to kick Rik's other foot out from under him and put him off balance enough for Strelok to move out from under the foot pressing down on his skull. They rolled like a log and planted one hand on the ground while pushing off of the ground. The roll turned into Strelok twisting their upper body so that they were facing Rik by the time they were half way to their feet and able to block a punch from the enraged Irken.

Rik was not giving Strelok a chance to counter attack. His knife sliced into the fabric of Strelok's left sleeve just below the protective elbow pad they wore, and while the Recluse flinched Rik spun on his left foot and snapped his right up in a reverse kick. His heel slammed into the side of their head and knocked them onto the ice that had not been melted by his lasers, but revealed once the snow had melted or fell off of the ice. Strelok managed to get up almost immediately after landing despite nearly slipping on the slipper surface, but Rik launched himself up. As he began his descent while leaping across the distance between them he stuck one leg out, aiming a drop kick at Strelok's chest.

The Recluse brought their arms up and caught the kick, but their feet slipped out from under them. They landed on their back while Rik flew over them and slid a bit before jamming his knife into the ice. The surface here was thick enough and far from the holes, so the tiny blade hardly did any damage to the integrity of the ice covering. He pushed off of the ice and came at Strelok again as the Black Recluse unbuckled the cloak they wore.

They tossed the fabric up at Rik, who swiped at it with his free hand and tore it aside. But then Strelok had their hand gun out and loaded with an extended fifteen round magazine. They fired twice, and one bullet tore through the meat of Rik's left arm. The Irken bit back a scream and let his momentum carry him into his opponent. He knocked the gun from his hand and sent it sliding across the ice where it fell into one of the five holes he had melted through it.

Strelok shoved Rik off and rolled towards the shore rather than try to run and slip. Once on solid ground they grabbed their KA-BAR knife and fitted the weapon to the barrel of their assault rifle. Rik's PAK legs deployed and formed an energy shield again as Strelok fired. But this time Rik kept moving towards Strelok and keeping track of where he stood. The Recluse kept on firing until the magazine of their rifle ran dry.

Strelok swore and rolled to the left to dodge the living battering ram that Rik had become. They grabbed another thirty round magazine and popped it in. _"Not bad, you're giving me a lot more trouble than the last opponent I had!"_

They spun to fire, but Rik was too close by then. Strelok adjusted their grip on the FSK-717 rifle and swung it horizontally so the knife would slice into Rik if he was close enough. Rik leaned back at the last second so that it missed him. He grabbed the weapon as Strelok tried to switch the positions of their own hands so that they could swing it back again. Rik jammed a knee into Strelok's gut hard enough to momentarily lift them up, double them over and release the rifle. The weapon dropped to the ground a few feet away, and Rik twisted counter clockwise while bringing his right leg up. The lower half of his leg snapped out in a kick.

The blow hit Strelok in the face, and cracked their goggles. They landed on their back and slid slowly away from Rik after ending up on the ice. The Recluse was sore and nauseated. This bounty hunter was winning against them...there was no denying that. Strelok groaned under their mask. Rik walked over and planted a foot on Strelok's gut. He leaned down...and took the locket from Strelok's hand.

The Recluse had wrapped the chain between their clenched fingers so as not to drop it. They had needed to keep baiting Rik. But that plan had back fired...Rik had just kicked the crap out of Strelok for taking the locket. The Irken stood up and kissed the locket once before pocketing it. "That's what happens to thieves."

Then he turned and began his steady walk back towards the shore line. Strelok growled, their pride wounded by the fact that Rik was seemingly sparing them. They slowly got up and pulled out the three pieces of their largest, strongest weapon.

It was overkill, yes...

But Rikalo had to die for humiliating them like this.

Xxx

End of Part Two


	7. Chapter 7

The Blood Sport Round Two

I don't own Invader Zim or Strelok

Xxx

**PART THREE: Unleash Your Inner Beast**

Rik held the locket with an uncharacteristic affection. He was smiling at the picture of his wife and children as the image brought back the memory of better times. He shut the ovular shaped pendant, and saw something in the reflection of the smooth surface on the flat mirror like side. Strelok was fiddling with something behind him, and was crouched on the ice. Rik kissed the locket again, this time for luck and pocketed it.

Strelok was focused upon one thing: eliminating the source of all their fury. The logical side of their mind would have said to save this particular strategy for another opponent further along the road...

But then the primal half drowned that idea out with a mute roar of blood lust. Their breathing was laboured and mixed with a low growl as they stared at Rik's retreating form. How dare he treat them like they were a trivial threat...they were the Black Recluse! They were Strelok, and Rikalo was just some two bit merc who was good for blowing things up or making a quick cheap hit.

He had no goal in life, followed no leader and did not contribute to anything. Strelok fought against rebel cells, guerilla armies and turned the tides of battles on whole planets! Thousands of the empire's enemies feared their very name, and the red glare of their mask! Now this glorified gun man would die.

Rik didn't need to read minds to know that Strelok's strategy had been turned against them. They thought they could cause him to make some amateur mistake and get himself killed. Who did they think he was? That didn't matter though, since in a few seconds one of them would be dead.

He had one chance for this, and he wouldn't waste it. He saw Strelok's FSK-717 laying in the snow and heard a loud _click_ behind him. Whatever it was that Strelok had constructed, it was finished now. The Black Recluse pulled the final required piece of the cylindrical weapon: a single anti personnel/air rocket. They slid the projectile into the barrel and placed it on their shoulder...

Now!

Rik dove forward, curling in and rolling over one shoulder in the snow. He snatched the rifle as he began to climb back to his feet and aimed at the startled Strelok.

_!_

He fired on full automatic and emptied half of the magazine into Strelok. Most of them were caught by their badly abused armour, but several went through their unprotected gut, legs or arms. The Recluse spat out blood onto the inside of their mask as an alarm went off within the suit. They were losing a lot of blood fast, and dropped the rocket launcher.

But then they felt a kick of sorts. It was their last ditch effort, and they had planned to keep it in reserve for the last round. But they hadn't planned on being so critically injured this early into the fight. This plan was called H-MMC, a combat drug that Strelok knew would either win them this fight or break them. Even if they won this time around would they last the next fight? Would the drug kill them?

There was no time to debate; if they did nothing they would either bleed out or Rik would finish them. Strelok had fallen to their knees, and Rik was approaching with their rifle aimed at them. "That was a dirty move you were about to pull; shooting a man in the back. I was about to let you go too since I was in a good enough mood."

Strelok slowly looked up. To them the whole world matched the beating of their heart; every feature would shift in a rhythmic motion, first growing larger and then shrinking back to normal size. The barrel of their rifle remained stationary however. Rik was speaking, but they didn't hear him...

They let out a low growl that turned into a howl of unrestrained blood lust. Rik was startled by the sudden outburst and barely got another shot off before Strelok lunged at him. Rik let his feet slip out from under him and leaned to the left. Strelok grabbed the barrel of the rifle and flew over Rik, who got back up in a crouch and looked to the Recluse. Strelok scrambled around on the ice clumsily, dropping the rifle and turning to charge at Rik. They stumbled, but used their hands to catch themselves and were approaching at a steady pace.

Rik made his way back onto solid ground and scrambled back towards the slope he and Strelok had rolled down earlier. He heard Strelok closing behind him and knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up his pace while drawing one of his pistols or unslinging his rifle-and he would be doomed if he tripped while going for his knife. So instead he needed something else...

He spotted something long sticking out of the snow up ahead. He grabbed it and wrenched on the object, revealing a thick branch of a tree which had most likely snapped off due to the weight of the snow place on it. He swung around with his improvised weapon and clotheslined Strelok with it. The branch caught them right in the neck. They stumbled back a step and snarled, ready to take up the fight again. But Rik snapped the branch up and struck Strelok in the chin. Their head was snapped back, and their spine arched a bit as they stumbled back some more.

"_I'm gonna rip out your fucking-"_ Rik hit Strelok a third time, but when he went for a fourth the Recluse caught it in one hand and tugged the branch out of his grip. Rik was pulled closer before letting go of the branch and was kicked in the sternum hard enough to launch him back. He coughed as he pulled himself into a sitting position and saw Strelok charging at him. They swung the weapon down, but Rik rolled aside and struck Strelok in the back of their knees.

Strelok fell to their knees and was ready to come back with another attack...but Rik managed to whip out one of his pistols and shoot them in the chest three times. Their body armour finally dissolved, and the shots tore into Strelok's vital organs. The Recluse fell onto their side without a sound, deathly still. Rik sighed in relief and got up. He holstered his gun. "Damn, I thought you'd never die."

He turned and looked towards the rocket launcher which had been left out on the ice. It only had one shot in it, but it was too tempting not to take. He walked out towards it and carefully stepped out onto the ice. By now the fighting had weakened the surface, so it would be dangerous to stay out for too long. He avoided the spots he had melted through and picked the weapon up. He held it under one arm as he examined it...

_Crunch_

Rik stiffened, looked up...

Then he dropped the rocket launcher and spun. His PAK legs unfolded and sliced in a path that followed his counter clockwise spin. They cut through the branch that Strelok had dragged onto the ice, and into the Black Recluse's torso. They gasped, a choked wet sound coming from under their mask. With one hand they snatched up their rifle and tried to fire it, only to find it empty. With no time to reload they snatched their KA-BAR knife from the tip while they kept their free hand pressed to their bleeding chest.

Rik withdrew his PAK legs out of range of the blade as the Recluse swung blindly. He moved into range and caught Strelok's knife arm in both hands. The taller fighter grasped the weapon with both hands and tried to jam the blade down into Rik's neck. But Rik dropped to one knee so that his joint dug into the ice and gave him a firmer support. Then he shot his other foot out and kicked one of Strelok's legs below the knee. It slid out from under them, and Strelok fell on their side.

Rik tried to turn the tables and force Strelok's own knife down into their throat while mounting his chest. For several seconds they struggled to overcome one another, pushing with every ounce of strength in their arms. But then they began to notice the cracks in the ice forming around them and quickly separated. The darker patches of ice were growing larger as the damage sustained to the surface grew all the more severe.

Strelok and Rik inched closer to one another with their blades drawn. Strelok was shaking from head to toe from adrenaline and fury while Rik shook from the cold and his own adrenaline. The Recluse made the first strike when they both shuffled into distance of one another, stabbing forward. Rik did not move his feet, but leaned back and to the left so the blade missed him. He replied by darting in low and slicing upwards, only for Strelok to tilt their head far to the left so that the tip of his knife just barely cut into the fabric over their collar bone.

Rik had an advantage in the knife fight, as Strelok kept one arm to the wounds on their torso. It was staining their armour and suit a rusty brown colour, and their ragged breathing could be heard in the silence that had descended on the lake once the local wild life-the little which had not already fled for shelter had relocated to avoid the violence. Only the unfeeling howl of the wind between the mountains and through the valleys around them sang to the bloodshed. Thrust and slice, parry and dodge; the two fighters could not touch one another with anything more than a nick of the blade or two here or there. Once in a while they would add a strike without the use of a blade once they stood in deeper snow instead of flat ice where they would have slipped and fallen into one of the nearby holes.

Then Rik saw his chance. He let Strelok get in close, pretending to be exhausted to the point of almost dropping his knife. Strelok took this chance and rushed in for the kill. Instead they were met with a surprise burst of energy as Rik spun again and slammed the sole of his boot into Strelok's mask. Bits of red glass fell away from the goggles, but revealed nothing of what was under the mask. The Recluse dropped their knife and collapsed backwards out of the snow, landing on the ice and cracking it further.

Rik slid his knife into his sheathe and examined Strelok's dropped KA-BAR. He picked the weapon up and slowly slid it into the sheath of his other boot-you could never have enough blades, and the sheath could adjust in size to fit the weapon. Strelok noticed this theft and growled, slowly getting up once again. Rik could not handle much more of this...Strelok had to die _now._

"Just," The Irken gunslinger growled. "Fucking," As Strelok began to get up the Irken bared his PAK legs again. "Lay down and-" Strelok started towards him again, carried only by sheer will to keep fighting. "DIE!"

With one final motion, Rik sank his two upper PAK legs down into Strelok, breaking through their clavicle and impaling downwards through the vital organs. He speared what little had not been torn to shreds. The masked mercenary went limp, their arms hanging from their body only by flesh and muscle. Then the ice under them cracked and broke. They slid down off of Rikalo's PAK legs and vanished under the water, leaving bits of impales organs and a coat of blood on the appendages. The water was stained the same colour as his PAK legs now; the only evidence that Strelok had ever been there.

Rik retracted the metal limbs into his PAK after dipping them into the water to wash off and letting them dry a bit. Even if Strelok was alive their arms were useless now. And with their armour and weapons weighing them down they would sink like a rock. But now the ice was cracking under him too! He swore and dashed across the ice. He took advantages of edges that formed between the cracked segments to leap to shore. With one final bound he landed on his side and rolled like a log before the ice broke and revealed the lake beneath.

It would be Strelok's resting place now...

"Hello there," Rik muttered as he noticed a gleaming object among the shallows. It was Strelok's lost pistol. He picked it up and examined the weapon. It seemed to be in working condition, and perhaps he could salvage it from any damage the water could have caused. He popped the magazine out and found thirteen bullets left in the extended magazine.

"Better than nothin'," He decided. "The son of a bitch was a lot of trouble; the least he could do is leave me with a few gifts."

As he slid the hand gun into an inner pocket of his coat the camera drone chose this moment to appear. **"CONGRATULATIONS CONTESTANT RIKALO! Another fine performance of blood and death for the masses! You have advanced to the third round now!"**

Rik ignored the little pest by kneeling down and examining two more little 'gifts' Strelok had left him: their cloak and hat. The gun and knife were useful, and the cloak could keep him warm but the hat...

"I ain't much of a hat person anymore," He muttered as he held up the hat and then tossed it out onto the water; it could further serve as a grave marker for the infamous Black Recluse. "But this..." He put the cloak on. "This'll keep me nice and warm until the next round." He chuckled and planned out how he would survive until that round. He was in the middle of the mountain area so perhaps there was a small cave he could find shelter in...hopefully.

"**Uhhhh...hello? Rikalo? Rikalo? Rikalo? Rikalo? Rikalo? Rikalo? Rikalo-"**

"Shaddup you damn soda can." Rik said casually and began his trek away from the lake. He had somebody else he'd rather be talking to...

He tapped into his PAK communicator and tried to hail the frequency which he had not even looked at for years. Once the drone was good and gone he inhaled slowly and then whispered as he began his climb up the slope:

"De...darlin'...it's me," He swallowed. "If you're there...if you're alright, please say somethin'...I love you."

It had been years since he said that, but better late than never to show your wife how you feel.

Xxx

(The following only happens if I move on to Round 3, if I don't then consider it an alternate ending of sorts for Rik, a non-canon ending to be precise.)

Several moments before Rik had sent his call, a certain woman with purple eyes and black tear drop birth marks received a guest. She was many miles from Rikalo, curled up in a small cave as shelter away from the snow. She watched as the blue glow of her Camera Drone-which had secretly watched Rikalo's match grew brighter. It lowered itself down to her.

"**I have good news!"** It said in its usual chipper voice, **"Rikalo has just won his second match! And oh man was it bloody and intense! Right to the last second! He had to practically rip his opponent open before they died!"**

This description was non-essential and only served to sicken De Rien. "But he's alright? He's fine, right?"

"**Oh yeah, last I saw he was on his feet and walking fine!"** The drone rotated up and down to mimic a nod of the head. **"He's actually in this very region! Not but a few dozen miles from this location."**

De felt her pulse race at the idea that her beloved was so close to her; closer than he had been for so long. Maybe he was in transmitter range then! She began to access her PAK's built in radio when she received an incoming call. Was it Paneece again?

She answered, but before she could ask who it was she heard the voice that had haunted her nightmares and illuminated her most euphoric of dreams. He was breathing a little heavily, perhaps due to the lesser amount of oxygen available in the higher mountain areas along with the cold-and the effort to travel anywhere in this blizzard.

"**De...darlin'...it's me,"** He said. **"If you're there...if you're alright, please say somethin'..."**

De opened her mouth, but felt words die in her throat when Rik whispered, _"I love you."_

...

"I love you too, Rik." She managed to say as tears poured down her face, following her birth marks down to her jaw line and dripping down only to freeze on the ground. "I love you too."

Xxx

End of Round Two


End file.
